How good could he have been if he applied himself? Or do you think he never had that much potential and just had a great night vs an off Tyson?
Lot's of potential, I heard that Buster never really wanted to be a fighter though, and was pushed towards boxing by his father Billy "Dynamite" Douglas.
I haven't seen much of him, but what I saw when he schooled Tyson was very Holmes like. He was great that night, so if he applied himself, he could have been great any night!
Will forever be overrated by the biggest upset in boxing history, in a fight in which Mike Tyson no longer cared about winning, boxing, or even life itself. It is not hard to defeat a depressed man. Big guy, some pop, good arsenal of punches, chinny and unmotivated. I would say that if there are alternate universes in which reality is slightly different, in 10,000 others he does not do nearly so well, winning an alphabet trinket from a no-hope drug addict and losing it on the first defense in some, giving over to diabetes before he can accomplish anything in others, and getting stopped by Tyson in still others.
I never thought he was that good. Motivated or not, that has a lot to do with it. He couldn't get motivated enough to not be stopped by Evander in 3 with one punch? To me he had a good night against Tyson and almost was knocked out. It wouldn't have taken much for him to be stopped.
A hot and cold fighter. This is what they do. On hot nights they look real real good. But the only constant thing they do is to be inconsistent. So they are never the types to string together 3 or 4 good efforts consecutively. So you know exactly what you are getting & it sure isn't a guy that is going to dominate a division.
Trippy consideration! Though I do not think he had a one in Ten K type of career Maybe more like one in fifty or a hundred considering other events could have motivated him better when he was developing That is assuming he started professional boxing
He could have been a really really good fighter. He had all the physical tools and skills but mentally he was ordinary. He did not have that much love for the sport and just didn't dedicate enough. When push came to shove excepting one night he was not overly there. If he had the drive and will of a Holmes or Frazier he would have been a damn good fighter for quite some time. I thought him promising a long time before he fought Tyson. The Tucker fight shows some of the best and worst of him.
If he'd have had the determination of Holy field ,with the will to win every fight ,and putting in the hour's in the gym ,then along with his natural attributes he'd have beaten a old Holmes ,a young Tyson and a good few other s at the top ..maybe
Tyson sure seemed like he cared about winning to me. He never stopped trying to knock Douglas' head off, even while eating tons of hard jabs and power punches round after round. And he was a very athletic big man who--at least in the Tyson fight--was able to use his size, strength, mobility, and reflexes--to put on a textbook illustration of distance control and fighting at his preferred range against a very dangerous opponent. A truly phenomenal performance.
Don't underestimate how the death of his mother galvanized his mindset. He promised her before she died that he would win. The sort of zone that may have put him in can be very powerful.
I think that he was always one of those fighters who people looked at in the gym, and said "wow this guy is a future champ for sure!" He was long on natural talent, but kept failing to translate it into professional success, and was a big disappointment to his poor father. The rest you know!
People forget he was getting the better of Tucker and just seemed to fold latter in the fight. Had a great jab and was very fluid.
